Functional additives: Promising material for reducing emissions in sound emitting pyrotechnic formulations

This investigation deals with ‘Reduced Emission Green Firecrackers’ to mitigate the adverse impact of fireworks emissions. Two types of sound-emitting green firecrackers, Safe Minimal Aluminium Cracker and Safe Water Releaser, have been developed using zeolite and boric acid hydrogel, respectively. Substantial reduction in usage of chemical oxidizers in sound-emitting firecrackers was achieved with implications on levels of particulate matter and gaseous emissions without detrimental effect on the ignition temperature. The “Green Firecrackers” reported herein possess typical pyrotechnic composition used in conventional crackers, with the only difference being the use of safer and inert additives including zeolite and boric acid hydrogel, which showed positive implications of reduced emissions. In particular, a significant emission reduction of 70–73%, was observed for particulate matter. For gaseous emissions like sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide, the emissions reduction was tuned down to 50–85% and 25–30% respectively. An insight into possible reasons for reduced emissions in sound crackers reveals that the prevalent mechanisms differs for the type of additive used, which is exemplified by zeolite functioning as i) dust suppressant for particulate matter, ii) sorbent for gaseous emissions and iii) sequestering agent for metal, whereas boric acid hydrogel releases water on ignition which acts as a dust suppressant. [Display omitted] •Developed a new class of pyrotechnic formulations to reduce fireworks emissions.•Achieved significant emission reduction for particulate matter and gaseous emission.•These reduced emission pyrotechnic formulations christened as “Green fireworks”.•Functional additives; Zeolite and boric acid hydrogel are used as dust suppressant.•Developed “Green firecrackers” have reduced environmental and chemical footprint.